In the current information age, information technology (IT) tools for managing files and data are extensively used in enterprises and other organizations, in order to maintain electronic documents and data in an organized manner.
A document management system may be configured to store documents as electronic files in a remote (and secure) document storage device, in order to protect the documents from theft or loss and to avoid unnecessarily occupying storage space local to the user computer or local computing environment, while making such files available on demand, but with access control, through a network. Such a document management system (for example, DocumentMall™) may be configured to provide users with remote access (that is, through a network) via a document management application and related software services that would otherwise be installed on the user's local computer.
Typically, a conventional document management system allows the user to create folders for storing documents and create cabinets for storing such folders, such as when the user needs to manage a large number of documents. Such a conventional document management system may allow the user to specify who should have access to specific documents, folders and cabinets. For example, the user can create a permission set specifying that read access is given to a particular user (for example, User A) and/or a group of users (for example, Group B), and associate the permission set with specific documents, folders and cabinets to allow User A and/or Group B to be able to read the contents of such specific documents, folders and cabinets.
There is a drawback, however, in that such process of customizing access to the files, folders and cabinets in a document management system is cumbersome, since the user has to first create or upload the file/folder/cabinet, create a permission set specifying customized access, and then associate the created permission set with the file/folder/cabinet.
There exists a need for an improved document management system which is more convenient and easier to use.